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Agreed. It depends. Just like with cars, the Total Cost of Ownership must be looked at. A cheap to buy car or bike can be horridly expensive if it requires expensive maintenance and repairs. It can also be really cheap to own.
The Kawasaki Concours is known for durability and reliability. Typical overbuilt 1980's vintage Japanese motorcycle engineering. Mine was purchased for $1800 and needed some clean-up and basic maintenance and had some minor cosmetic flaws. It has shaft drive and screw valve adjusters - really easy and cheap to maintain.
For tires, there are often many choices. I have well over 40K miles on the rear gold wing touring tire and it is still going strong. Fronts last about 20K. Touring rubber lasts much longer than sport rubber, and I've never had a traction problem except in ice (duh). I feel that if I needed sport rubber to maintain traction I'm probably doing something I really shouldn't be doing anyway. Some people buy the best traction they can buy, but I can say that I don't need DOT R compound radials on my truck. The same philosophy goes for the bike.
If low cost of ownership is part of what you're after, choose carefully. Some manufacturers know that thier customers will pay alot in maintenance, but it is assumed that it is acceptable to the customer. In some markets, the customers demand bikes that are cheap to buy AND maintain, and the manufacturers make them. Do your own evaluation to see what best fits your need.
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